Donald Trump's Focus In College Makes A Lot Of Sense
It may be hard to imagine as of 2019, but President Donald Trump led an entirely different life before he entered the White House. Even though he may be focusing on politics at the moment, that wasn't his first passion. So, what did Donald Trump study in college? It explains his interest in business and real-estate.
According to Penn GSE, Donald Trump graduated in 1968 from the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor's degree in economics, specializing in finance. The Washington Post also points out that while Trump took undergraduate classes at the university's prestigious Wharton School of Business, he was not enrolled in the school's MBA program. Nevertheless, his focus in economics and finance makes sense for his pre-politics career, when Trump was known as a bombastic figure in high-end real estate.
Trump has claimed that he graduated first in his class at the Wharton School, but in 1984 The New York Times Magazine reporter William Geist stated that The University of Pennsylvania's 1968 commencement program did not list Trump graduating with any honors whatsoever. According to Forbes, the Wharton School calculates honors based on a student's GPA score, which means that it's likely Trump graduated with a GPA of 3.40 or lower.
Trump's educational achievement has been a subject of speculation for awhile — especially after his former attorney, Michael Cohen, told the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Wednesday, Feb. 27, that Trump had allegedly threatened his former schools so that they wouldn't make his grades or SAT scores public. During his testimony, Cohen said,
When I say con man, I'm talking about a man who declares himself brilliant but directed me to threaten his high school, his colleges, and the College Board to never release his grades or SAT scores.
Elite Daily previously reached out to the White House for comment on Trump's college GPA and Cohen's claims that the president allegedly threatened schools, but did not hear back.
Even though Trump's educational achievements is something of a mystery, the president hasn't held back about criticizing President Barack Obama's educational background. During Obama's re-election campaign in 2012, Trump claimed that Obama was a "terrible student" during a 2011 interview with the the Associated Press, and questioned whether he truly deserved to attend Harvard Law School. Trump said,
I heard he was a terrible student, terrible. How does a bad student go to Columbia and then to Harvard? I'm thinking about it, I'm certainly looking into it. Let him show his records.
Then, in July 2012, Trump took to Twitter and once again demanded Obama publicly release his academic transcript.
If @BarackObama had such a wonderful academic record why wouldn't he want to show it?
But wait, there's more! Trump's interest in Obama's academic performance reached such heights that in October 2012, Trump claimed he would make a $5 million charitable donation if the then-president released his college applications and records. In the end, nothing came from that bet.
For the record, President Obama graduated from Columbia University in New York in 1983 with a degree in political science, and went on to graduate magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1991. He was also the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, according to NBC New York. So, even if Obama didn't take Trump's bait and publicly release his academic records, that information is impressive enough.
Who knows if we'll ever get the full story on President Trump's college education, but in the meantime we'll just have to speculate. Stay in school, kids!
